Martyrs or Terrorists: Suicide bombing in Islamic Hermeneutics

Most sociologists, anthropologists and scholars with backgrounds different from the Islamic tradition had written off martyrdom as parallel to suicide. However, the concept of martyrdom in Islam is associated with an all-inclusive effort to make the word of Allah supreme on the surface of the earth. The adoption of suicide terrorism by some Muslim groups as a strategic objective of modern warfare is the thrust of this paper. The work explicates suicide terrorism as war tactic in contemporary time. It examines the evidence and claims that have been advanced for the permissibility of self-sacrifices operation (al-amaliyyat al-Istishhadiyyah) or martyrdom, and suicide bombing, which many of the contemporary groups consider as legitimate tactic of war and hence subsequently qualifying the one that is involved a martyr. To achieve this, the authors use the Qur’an, Hadith, different school of thoughts and contemporary scholar’s view to examine the position and claims that have been advanced. However, the various sources from classical times to our present day provide evidence that martyrdom or self-sacrifice operation is not alien to Islam but, the upsurge of suicide terrorism and suicide bombing among some militant Muslim groups today is not an influence of Islamic fundamentalism or conservatism as mostly explained in intellectual discourse rather it is adopted as a war tactic which exists in other traditions outside Islam and that its permissibility depends on the context of its deployment.Keywords: Jihad, Martyrs. Terrorists, Suicide, bombin

The Role of State and Professional Bodies in Developing Code for Structural Concrete – Learning from other Nations

In order to arrest the rampant structural failures of buildings, there have been call for the development and adoption of structural design codes that will capture all relevant environmental issues that are peculiar to Nigeria.  This paper presents the results of analysis of data collected from the public domain (libraries and internet sources) on Nations with acceptable structural design codes in concrete and allied materials. Some of the findings are that: (i) Code or Standard does not necessarily need to be a legal document or backed by the state to enjoy wider acceptance or be recognized, (ii) it is possible for people in the same professions to form professional association and regulate the operation of the profession by setting standard of practice which can be recognized, not only by people, but also acceptable to the State and (iii) whether a standard developed as a legal document or recommendations of professional association, openness and consideration for the inputs for all are necessary. This is to ensure that the operation of the standard will not run contrary to the public good, or in violation of the common law, or infringe the rights of a subject/citizen. Keywords — Building failures, Codes, Concrete, Legal document, Professional bodies, Structures

Biomechanics of the clean and jerk in weightlifting national Jordanian team

Seven elite national Jordanian weightlifters were videoed at 50 fields per second from the sagittal plane during the execution of the clean and jerk (C&J) on an AMTI force platform with 3 weights of submaximal lifts; low medium and high weights (35%, 65%, 85%) of their maximum. Linear and angular kinematics of the barbell with the ground reaction forces histories of the lower body were analysed using Kinova & APAS. A significant decrease was found in the maximum vertical velocity of the barbell during the second pull of the heaviest lift (p < 0.05). Maximum extension velocity of the hip joint significantly increased during the first pull of the heaviest lift (p < 0.05). Vertical velocity and maximum bar height decreased during the second pull, especially at 85%. Angle-angle diagrams of the knee and hip profile showed major differences among participants, especially at the 85% lift of their maximum

Nutritional Practices of Athletes in Oman: A Descriptive Study

Objective: Adequate dietary intake is crucial for optimum training and performance of athletes. There is almost no available information related to dietary practices among Omani athletes, especially during the competition. This study aimed to assess the nutritional practices (nutritional knowledge, eating habits and daily nutrients intake) among Omani male handball athletes in Muscat city, Oman.Methods: This is a cross sectional study including 35 male handball athletes involved in serious training for no less than three years. Data collection was done through personal interviews using a study questionnaire which enlisted questions relating to socio-demographic information, anthropometric measurements and nutritional practices. All the study participants declared no intake of anabolic steroids.Results: The mean age of the study participants was 27 ± 3 years. Their anthropometric assessment revealed that their mean height was 166 ± 12 cm, mean weight was 75 ± 10 kg, and body mass index was 27 ± 3. Nutritional knowledge analysis revealed that 80% had no nutritional supervision by a nutritionist/dietitian. Their knowledge of nutritional requirements was only 23% correct for total energy intake, 63% for protein intake, 46% for carbohydrate intake, 11% for fat intake and 83% for water intake. Eating habits indicated that 55% had <3 meals/day, 51% had lunch as the principal meal, 51% always added extra salt to their food, 28% took protein supplements on a daily basis, and 51% used pre-competition glycogen load diet. However, none consumed vitamins or mineral supplements. The mean daily caloric intake was 3674 ± 265 kcal/day, which was roughly comprised of 596 ± 66 g carbohydrates, 147 ± 28 g of protein and 78 ± 20 g of total fat.Conclusion: Professional nutritional supervision is needed in order to improve the nutritional knowledge and eating habits of Omani athletes, and therefore improve their athletic performance

Joint Associations of Activity Energy Expenditure and Sedentary Behaviors with Adolescent's Obesity and Dietary Habits

PURPOSE: Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors are thought to be independent entities and differently associate with adverse health outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the joint associations of physical activity and sedentary behaviors with obesity indices and dietary habits among adolescents from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. METHODS: Data were from the Arab Teens Lifestyle Study (ATLS), a school based, cross-sectional lifestyle study. The present analysis included 6279 adolescents (49.4% males) aged 14-20 years, randomly selected from eight major cities in the GCC countries, using a multistage stratified cluster sampling technique. Anthropometric and self-reported lifestyle data were obtained from participants. Adolescents were classified into four categories: high active & low sedentary (HA-LS), high active & high sedentary (HA- HS), low active & low sedentary (LA-LS) and low active & high sedentary (LA-HS), based on cut off scores of total activity energy expenditure and daily screen time above and below 1680 METs-min/week and above or below 3 hours/day, respectively. RESULTS: Results of MANCOVA tests controlling for age revealed that compared with those with LA-HS, adolescents with HA-LS had signifi cantly (<0.001) lower mean (SD) values for BMI (22.6 (5.5) vs 23.7 (6.2)), waist to height ratio (0.45 (.07) vs 0.48 (.08)), and less frequent intakes of sugar-sweetened drinks (3.7 (2.5) vs 4.5 (2.3)), fast foods (2.2 (1.9) vs 2.9 (1.9)), French fries/potato chips (2.1 (2.0) vs 2.9 (2.1)), cakes/donuts (2.4 (2.1) vs 2.7 (2.1)) and sweets (2.5 (2.1)) vs 3.8 (2.3) but more frequent intakes of breakfast (3.9 (2.7) vs 3.3 (2.6)), vegetables (4.4 (2.3) vs 3.5 (2.4)), fruits (4.2 (2.3) vs 2.8 (2.2)) and milk (4.3 (2.5) vs 3.6 (2.5)). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with combined high activity energy expenditure and low sedentary behaviors tend to have lower risk of obesity and have more favorable (healthy) dietary habits. These findings carry important implications for adolescent’s health promotion and obesity prevention.American College of Sports Medicin

Technical design of the phase I Mu3e experiment

The Mu3e experiment aims to find or exclude the lepton flavour violating decay μ→eee at branching fractions above 10−16. A first phase of the experiment using an existing beamline at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is designed to reach a single event sensitivity of 2⋅10−15. We present an overview of all aspects of the technical design and expected performance of the phase I Mu3e detector. The high rate of up to 108 muon decays per second and the low momenta of the decay electrons and positrons pose a unique set of challenges, which we tackle using an ultra thin tracking detector based on high-voltage monolithic active pixel sensors combined with scintillating fibres and tiles for precise timing measurements

Technical design of the phase I Mu3e experiment

The Mu3e experiment aims to find or exclude the lepton flavour violating decay $\mu \rightarrow eee$ at branching fractions above $10^{-16}$. A first phase of the experiment using an existing beamline at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is designed to reach a single event sensitivity of $2\cdot 10^{-15}$. We present an overview of all aspects of the technical design and expected performance of the phase~I Mu3e detector. The high rate of up to $10^{8}$ muon decays per second and the low momenta of the decay electrons and positrons pose a unique set of challenges, which we tackle using an ultra thin tracking detector based on high-voltage monolithic active pixel sensors combined with scintillating fibres and tiles for precise timing measurements.Comment: 114 pages, 185 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods A. Edited by Frank Meier Aeschbacher This version has many enhancements for better readability and more detail

Awareness of cognitive decline trajectories in asymptomatic individuals at risk for AD

Background: Lack of awareness of cognitive decline (ACD) is common in late-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recent studies showed that ACD can also be reduced in the early stages. Methods: We described different trends of evolution of ACD over 3 years in a cohort of memory-complainers and their association to amyloid burden and brain metabolism. We studied the impact of ACD at baseline on cognitive scores’ evolution and the association between longitudinal changes in ACD and in cognitive score. Results: 76.8% of subjects constantly had an accurate ACD (reference class). 18.95% showed a steadily heightened ACD and were comparable to those with accurate ACD in terms of demographic characteristics and AD biomarkers. 4.25% constantly showed low ACD, had significantly higher amyloid burden than the reference class, and were mostly men. We found no overall effect of baseline ACD on cognitive scores’ evolution and no association between longitudinal changes in ACD and in cognitive scores. Conclusions: ACD begins to decrease during the preclinical phase in a group of individuals, who are of great interest and need to be further characterized. Trial registration: The present study was conducted as part of the INSIGHT-PreAD study. The identification number of INSIGHT-PreAD study (ID-RCB) is 2012-A01731-42